Our Membership Administrator, Vicki, was a primary school teacher before she joined our team. She's gathered together a range of resources for parents and guardians who are home-schooling children due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Explaining Coronavirus to Kids

• This short video, from Belfast health & Social Care Trust, is a great way of helping to explain coronavirus to kids.
• UK government advice regarding school-aged children - "If it is at all possible for children to be at home, then they should be."  Plus details of keyworker exemptions for ongoing schooling during the outbreak.
• British Psychological Society advice for families - how to talk to kids about coronavirus (thanks to our clinical advisor Roseanna Brady)
• A wonderful book that helps explain coronavirus to young children.
• A helpful guide (with worksheets) from the Childrens' Commissioner on explaining Covid-19 to children

Here's a website that is running courses for children coping with changes - Learn how to provide playful and engaging social emotional learning (SEL) support to children affected by COVID-19 disruption. https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/coping-with-changes 

Toddlers

• Over 40 great indoor activities, especially for young children.
• Cbeebies : Games, puzzles, stories for children of preschool age and above
• Orchard Toys : Colouring, games, activities
• Numberblocks : pre-school maths!
• Alphablocks : pre-school language!

Kids of all ages

If you’re looking for ideas of how to pass the time with your kids, this is a great crowd-sourced "Giant List of Ideas For Being Home With Kids".

These websites have a range of printable resources :

• BBC Bitesize 
• Letters and Sounds 
• Early Learning HQ 
• Ichild : Printable activities
• Twinkl : Loads of resources, ideas and printables
• Sparklebox :  Printable activities and resources
• Science Museum : Games, apps and resources
• Childnet : Resources, activities prinatables
• Oxford Owl : Online reading books, maths activities and games, writing activities, printables
• Crickweb : Free online educational resources and games
• Orchard Toys : Colouring, games, activities

Websites with online educational games

• Phonics Play : Phonics, spelling games and activities (They are giving free access - username: march20 password: home)
• ICT Games : Lots of Maths and English activities
• Topmarks :  has the maths game ‘hit the button’ which is popular in schools
• Phonics Bloom  : fun with phonics!
• The Maths Factor : Carol Voderman's educational resources, now free during Covid-19 outbreak!

Websites for Science

• Science Kids : Fun science activities and experiments to do at home with equipment you will already have
• Ducksters : Science information and activities

Websites for exercise and dances

• GoNoodle :  Fun exercises and dances to do to keep the children active
• Joe Wicks :  Daily PE lesson on You tube or click on one of previous videos for kids to join in with @thebodycoach
• Just Dance Kids on You tube : For fun dances and exercises with music. A variety on you tube
• Cosmic Yoga : Yoga videos designed for kids aged 3+

Websites for ICT

• Scratch : Kids can make stories, games and animation using programming
• Purple Mash 
• Touch Typing : learn to type like a pro!
• Software Cornwall's curated list of free coding, programming and robotics resources (kids 7-16 years)

Adventures to keep things interesting & fun

• This is a 28 day planner with lots of educational - and fun - ideas for activities